Medicine 2025 entry -part 3

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Will try to add old threads, maybe good for us to give an update of where our DCs are at

My DD applied with grades in hand this year having re-sat her a levels last year but I have clear memories of the stress! Wishing all your young people the very best of luck in their exams and sending all good wishes to parents/carers supporting them. X

PS DD has decided on Bristol so if there are any past, present, prospective parents of Bristol med students, all advice and tips gratefully received!!

Congrats to your dd! @justjuggling my dd is just finishing her first year at Bristol and has absolutely loved it. Anything in particular you wish to know?

Best of luck to all of those with dc sitting exams soon. 🤞

@justjugglingmy other DD is just finishing 5 years at Bristol - vet not medic. But she’s had an amazing time. It’s a great city, so much to do at the Uni and they all get together as health care people to do medics rounds. They play sport a lot against each other too. V sociable place. She’ll have a wonderful time !!

Any recommendations for the best first year accommodation? That’s her main thought at the moment. Is there somewhere where lots of med students tend to choose.

Grest to hear you DD had a fab first year. Is Bristol a long distance from home? I feel like I’m back to my DD starting primary school and the hope she’ll make friends!!

Thank you @mumsneedwine , that’s reassuring. Great to hear about sports opportunities as my DD is an enthusiastic netball player and loves a game of tennis!

My dd is in East Village as wanted to be close to uni and the town centre but tbh the majority of med students are in North Village. It’s very social there and lots of house parties. It’s also very close to Coombe Dingle which is where all the UoB sports take place. The uni bus takes about 20 mins to get to uni from North. Dd has made lots of friends who don’t do medicine so I’m sure yours will find it easy to make friends too. The med students are extremely busy compared to others but that suits dd.

We are in London so only 2 hours away and another reason why she chose Bristol. 😊

DD got a rejection from Nottingham after being on their waitlist, so close to starting exams in about 2 weeks time.
Thankfully she is pragmatic about it.
She is now firming Liverpool and insuring SGUL.

Great to hear of people making their choices on UCAS. It's so tough that decisions are still coming in so close to the exams.

DD has withdrawn from Leeds waitlist, firmed Oxford and insured Newcastle. Next stop, exams...

I am sure I saw a comment from Aberdeen somewhere that suggested that they wouldn’t make waitlist offers to those who already had a medicine offer?

Hope Chemistry AH exam went well for those in Scotland.

Dd put on waitlist for Leicester today, so she’ll be firming Lincoln and insuring Plymouth. Went to Plymouth open day on Saturday and could not get on at all with the PBL (although she only did a one hour taster!); she’s much more keen on the structure at Lincoln and bonus you get the BMedSci as they are following the Notts degree for the last year! Just completing student finance etc so she can just think about A levels now. Relieved to have got to this point but still got the final hurdle to get through - good luck to all of your YP (and parents) entering exam season!

If you’ve firmed and insured, can you make changes on ucas?
DD now having 2nd thoughts

If you read this page at the end (changed your mind) it says you have 14 day. https://www.ucas.com/applying/after-you-apply/types-undergraduate-offers/replying-your-ucas-undergraduate-offers#:~:text=24%20July%202025.-,Changed%20your%20mind?,and%20completely%20withdraw%20your%20application.

@Ib1234567 thank you, I’ll have a look at that.

Hi

How are everyone kids doing in exam season?

For us it is very hard to wait as all ours are in Jun( doing bio/chem/math) , seeing his friends having started and some in there second exams , also some have spread schedule while he will do everything in one go at the end.

Its hard to stay motivated when exams are late!

We’re Scotland so DD has done 2 exams and has her last one at the end of the month. She’s struggled a bit with stress, she has realised that if these don’t go well, all the UCAT and interview prep will have been for nothing. She’s very clear though, if she doesn’t do well in these exams, she’s not doing it again next year!

DD started already. First paper this week and one next week. Then that subject is finished and she has the other 2 subjects in June.
Good for her because she can focus a bit more on this subject and then the other 2 afterwards.
Also we found out the rejection from Notts wasn’t actually so, she s still on their waiting list. Having said that she has decided against Notts anyway 😅
Also she was on WL for Plymouth and they’ve bow
basically offered everyone on WL places ( she was only I score away from cut off anyway). And they’ve now been offering some who they gave outright rejections after interview.
Her best friend who had been out on hold by Queen Mary’s QUB, also just got and offer. It’s where she really wants and was contemplating taking a gap year. She also got a surprise contextual lower offer.
it just goes to show, it’s not over, until it’s over…
All the best to our DC. How pray they all achieve the grades they need and those still waiting get good news.

Whilst I appreciate the difficulties medical schools have in giving out the correct number of offers, these games do seem very unfair on students.

I note next year UCAS has introduced some more deadlines - if you get all your offers by 31 March, then you have to firm by 6 May. I wonder if this would reduce the use of waiting lists.

Yes, same issue here. All kicks off in June. Trying to chip away at it and maintain momentum. The last hurdle. Then the long wait until results day. Hoping all the hard work pays off for all our children. Best of luck to all!

Just wanted to check in and say I hope the A Level/Highers revision is going well for those who are doing it. It's a long slog, especially as the sciences tend to be late.

DD is in the happy position of having finished (though I have younger kids doing GCSEs so it still feels like an 'exam house'). Most of her friends are still in the middle of A Levels, so I think the main celebrations are a way off still, but in the meantime she's sleeping late, baking, swimming in the sea every day, picking up more shifts at work and generally regrouping. The light at the end of the tunnel...

Science A levels are so late this year ! Running clinics next few days and usually by now they’d have done paper 1. Given us more time but they are sooooo ready to start !

Good luck to everyone. If anyone follows other medicine threads and sees me being negative please ignore. I am fighting so so hard (with many others) to try and change the narrative, so when your young people graduate things have improved.

My own DD is working v hard (78 hours in AMU is quite common it seems), but looking forward to starting ST1 in August in her first choice speciality and first choice hospital. There are still many positive stories out there ! Didn’t want it to seem all gloom.

Exams are over here. Last one was on Tuesday. So now we wait until 5th August.

Oh wow!! Well done to those who have finished.

so nice hear positive news @mumsneedwine

Hope the exams are going well! Does anyone have any experience of UpLearn they can share? Thinking of getting biology and chemistry for DD for yr 12 and 13 to support her studies (she’s doing her GCSEs at the moment).

Yes it's brilliant. My elder DD was struggling with physics, and had a bad teacher who didn't try and help and she signed up and raised her grade from a C to an A. We've since recommended to others and they've had similar great results. Hope that helps